


gave you the antidote, too.

by QuietLittleVoices



Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Cryptids, F/M, Five Times, Fluff, Gratuitous X Files References, M/M, Some angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 17:56:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietLittleVoices/pseuds/QuietLittleVoices
Summary: Five times someone called Sammy 'Scully'.





	gave you the antidote, too.

**Author's Note:**

> So. I was having a really bad day re: depression yesterday and watched a bunch of X Files episodes because it's my Comfort Show and decided to revisit a headcanon I had. 
> 
> Title from 'The Scully Song' by Eric D. Snider which is a great song everyone should listen to
> 
> All cryptid info contained is purely my own knowledge.

Jack had been into unusual and paranormal things for as long as Sammy had known him. His bookshelf had a variety of titles relating to aliens and cryptids and all sorts of things that Sammy neither fully understood or believed. 

So it wasn’t entirely surprising that he was the biggest fan of The X Files that Sammy had ever met. And Jack took it as a personal offense that Sammy had never watched more than a few episodes that had happened to be airing while he was in high school. By contrast, Jack had rented all the available seasons from Blockbuster and recorded the rest, and had since purchased them all and watched them several times.

Of course Jack forced Sammy to watch them with him when they got an apartment with Lily, though Sammy wasn’t sure how much of the show he was actually understanding with Jack’s stream of explanations and details - some of which were pulled from later seasons to re-contextualize things Sammy already didn’t understand. 

“You know, you’re sort of the Scully to my Mulder,” Jack said one night, looking at Sammy affectionately as he changed the disc.

Sammy felt himself freeze for a second before he laughed it off and shook his head. “I guess by default, yeah.”

“I mean I’m not as -” he made a vague hand gesture that Sammy took to mean  _ frantic _ or  _ ridiculous _ “- as Mulder, and you’re not as-”   
“Smart?” Sammy interrupted.

“I wasn’t gonna say that,” Jack teased, hitting Sammy’s shoulder lightly. “But sure. You’re not as smart as Scully, though she’s literally a doctor so. I think the comparison stands.”

Well, they were only on season three, so Sammy couldn’t vouch for that.

 

He didn’t do it again until after they started dating, which was also after they’d watched through the series once fully. 

Jack had become obsessed with a book about some ranch in Utah where weird shit seemed to happen, and had tried explaining it to Sammy a few times. 

“It’s just… too much,” Sammy admitted. “Like, this place is pretty small, relatively, right? And yet all this shit happens all the time?”

“Not  _ all _ the time, it’s spread out-” Jack contested.

“Sure, sure, but still - like. Aliens and ghosts-”

“Apparitions.”

“Dude.” Sammy levelled him a look and Jack glared back. “It’s just all this stuff, it feels like they’re casting a huge net, okay? Like of course there’s some stuff that is hard to explain because there’s so  _ much _ . Exploring it all gets muddled.”

Jack sighed. “Okay, Scully, whatever. But the family isn’t making money off this, okay? The book doesn’t even use their real names.”

Sammy pressed his lips together in a thin line, trying not to let the fact that the nickname made him feel warm knowing Jack related him to one of his favourite things. “I’ll let you have that,” he conceded. “But I still think it’s ridiculous.”

“And you can think that,” Jack agreed. He leaned over and kissed Sammy. “I still love you, even if you refuse to open your mind.”

Sammy felt himself get flustered. “You, uh - you…?”

Jack’s eyes widened when he registered his own words. “I mean, I-”

“I love you, too,” Sammy said quickly, speaking over Jack before he could take it back. Sometimes he felt so overtaken by how much he loved Jack that he didn’t know what he would do if Jack tried to take it back.

He knew he made the right choice when Jack’s eyes lit up. “Oh, good.”

“Even if you’re ridiculous,” Sammy qualified, trying to lighten the suddenly heavy mood.

Jack rolled his eyes. “Too bad you’re stuck with me.”

Sammy tried to look hard done by and failed by miles, instead looking as besotted and fond as he felt. “Yeah. Too bad.”

 

It’s not that Jack calls him that frequently, but it’s one of the only things he calls Sammy aside from his name when they’re in public. It’s clearly affectionate, but the extent of it is known only to the two of them.

They were at a bar with friends from the radio station who all knew that Jack had at least a passing interest in strange things, because everyone did - including Jack’s jock buddies. 

“He’s been into, like - what is it this week, Jack?” Sammy asked, handing Jack a drink and sliding in next to him as he returned to their table from the bar with Matt following. “Mothman?”

Jack rolled his eyes. “That was last week. It’s like you don’t even know me,” he teased, taking a sip from the beer.

“Sure, so what is it then? You wouldn’t shut up about it last night.” 

Jack had the decency to look at least somewhat shamed as the other guys teased him lightly about getting too involved in ‘weird shit’. “It was Dyatlov Pass, if you must know, Scully,” Jack retorted with more confidence than his blush signified.

“Of course, of course,” Sammy agreed, nodding sagely and meeting eyes with some of the people on the other side of the table as if to let them in on the joke. “So this is the yeti one?”

“See, that’s the thing-” Jack’s shame was forgotten as he launched into his explanation of government conspiracy and aliens and all sorts of other things that Sammy no more understood now than the night before when Jack had tried to explain it before bed.

 

It shouldn’t have surprised Sammy that Ben was familiar with all things X Files. He was as deeply interested in the strange and unusual as Jack had been, not that Sammy let himself draw those parallels.

“It’s too early in the morning to be talking about this shit,” Sammy said, dropping his head into his hands away from the mic for a moment before collecting himself. “King Falls doesn’t have its own  _ Mothman _ . I can’t allow it.”

“Of course we don’t have a Mothman,” Ben agreed.

“Good, so we’re on the same page.”

“We have a Batsquatch.”

“I hate you.”

Ben smiled at him smugly. “No you don’t. Now, listeners, if you or anyone you know have seen the Batsquatch out on Old Bombing Range Road then give us a call at-”

“ _ Please _ don’t,” Sammy implored. “I’m begging you - it’s almost six, I’m almost free of having to hear about this for the night, please just do this for me. There is no Batsquatch. I refuse.”

“Just because you don’t believe in it, doesn’t make it go away, Scully!” Ben argued.

Sammy felt himself go tense and blank. He could feel Ben giving him a questioning look and knew that the precious seconds of dead air were passing them by. He took a deep breath rolled his eyes at Ben, trying to make it clear that everything was fine, and even if it wasn’t then he didn’t want to talk about it. “Yeah, but it doesn’t exist, so there’s that. The caller probably just saw a flying squirrel in his rearview and thought it was far away.”

“C’mon, even  _ you _ can’t believe that.”

Sammy shrugged. “Maybe it was a racoon that jumped out from a tree.”

“Dude! Low blow!”

Sammy laughed, and managed to get Ben off the topic of ‘Batsquatches’ and other strange things for the remaining half hour of the show. He pushed down any thoughts or feelings he had, but when he got home he pulled a box of Jack’s things out from under his guest room bed and took a moment to look at the old DVD cases, all worn with frequent use. And then he closed the box and pushed the feelings down again.

 

“What do you  _ mean _ they started making new episodes?” Jack asked, delighted. He turned to Sammy. “I’ve been back for  _ months _ and you haven’t told me this?”

Ben cringed. “Dude - I hate to tell you this but… It’s not great.”

“Really? Damn. I mean, I still think I have to watch it though.”

“You  _ really _ don’t,” Ben said. “Listeners, there’s gonna be some spoilers for the latest season of The X Files here. Feel free to turn it off, but it really doesn’t matter because you shouldn’t watch it. And here’s why-”

Ben launched into a lengthy discussion about narrative consistency and doing right by the fans and characters, which Sammy largely tuned out of as he let the other men speak animatedly on the topic. 

“I can’t believe Sammy hates the show so much when you love it,” Ben said after Jack was convinced the new episodes could be curated by Ben to choose only the good ones. 

“He doesn’t  _ hate  _ it,” Jack replied. “We always had fun watching it, didn’t we?” He turned to look at Sammy.

“Yeah, it’s a good show. Not that you ever shut up for very long,” Sammy teased.

Ben spoke up. “Is that why you refused to watch it when I asked?”

Sammy looked away from both of them. “Pretty much? It was always me and Jack’s thing, and I couldn’t-” he tried to convey without words what he meant and was relieved when Ben nodded.

“It’s okay, dude, I get it. But now I know Jack’s into it we’re gonna have to have a movie night with Emily. I just started making her watch it, too.”

Both Jack and Sammy agreed that that would be fun, and the conversation devolved away from a certain TV show and onto other topics. And Jack waited until they were leaving the station that morning to ask him about it.

“Ben said you acted like you hated it - is that true? You know you could’ve always told me that you didn’t like it.”

Sammy shook his head. “It’s not that. It’s just - it reminded me too much of you.” He reached over to take Jack’s hand between their seats. “You always used to call me-”

“Scully, I remember,” Jack said, smiling at him softly. “It wasn’t that long ago for me,” he reminded.

Sammy pushed down the spike of guilt, knowing that it wasn’t the time for that. “Yeah. And I know it’s stupid but I just - I couldn’t.”

Jack tugged on Sammy’s hand and kissed the back of it before releasing it so Sammy could drive. “I get it. You’ll always be my Scully, though. Just so you know.”

Sammy smiled over at him for a second, allowing the warmth in his chest to spread. “I know.”

**Author's Note:**

> The book Jack is reading in the second bit is 'The Hunt for Skinwalker Ranch', a book I know of but have not personally read.
> 
> Feel free to let me know if you, too, feel Some Kinda Way about X Files Season 11, or obscure and strange cryptids!


End file.
